CAIRO: Egypt has ordered the arrest of eight people over a collision between two trains that killed 18 people last week, the prosecutor’s office said Monday.
“The prosecutor general ordered that the two drivers... their two assistants, the guard of a traffic control tower, the head of traffic control in Assiut and two other guards ... be remanded in custody,” a statement from the prosecutor said.
The statement put the death toll from Friday’s crash at 18, down from 19 cited by Health Minister Hala Zayed on Saturday, and an initially reported 32.
The prosecutor’s statement said 200 were wounded, up from 185 cited by the health minister.
Most of those injured in Friday’s crash, that occurred in the Tahta district of the southern Sohag province, suffered fractures.
Surveillance camera footage seen by AFP showed a speeding train barrelling into another, sending a carriage hurtling into the air in a cloud of dust.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has pledged tough punishment for those responsible for the crash, the latest in a series of rail accidents.
Such incidents are generally attributed to poor infrastructure and maintenance.
One of the deadliest Egyptian train crashes came in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.
Egypt orders eight arrests over fatal train crash
https://arab.news/rz3fp
Egypt orders eight arrests over fatal train crash
- The statement put the death toll from Friday’s crash at 18
- The prosecutor’s statement said 200 were wounded
Tunisian police arrest member of parliament who mocked president
- Ahmed Saidani mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage”
TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested lawmaker Ahmed Saidani on Wednesday, two of his colleagues said, in what appeared to be part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.
Saidani has recently become known for his fierce criticism of Saied. On Tuesday, he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage,” blasting what he said was the absence of any achievements by Saied.
Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied’s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.
Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.
Activists and human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one-man rule and turned Tunisia into an “open-air prison” in an effort to suppress his opponents. Saied denies being a dictator, saying he is enforcing the law and seeking to “cleanse” the country.
Once a supporter of Saied’s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic in recent months, accusing the president of seeking to monopolize all decision-making while avoiding responsibility, leaving others to bear the blame for problems.
Last week, Saidani also mocked the president for “taking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute,” sarcastically adding that Saied not only has solutions for Tunisia but claims to have global approaches capable of saving humanity.
Under Tunisian law, lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested for carrying out their duties, although detention is allowed if they are caught committing a crime.
